“The Expedia brand may be well known in the US and Europe but out here, it’s not that known. We are a two-year-old start-up so we need to get people to know and love the brand,” said Tan, who was instrumental in building up the AirAsia brand over the nine years she was with the low cost carrier.

And just as she made red the signature colour of AirAsia, she’s now breathing yellow into Expedia. And when Tan does something, she gets totally immersed in it. It’s, like, her professional vision becomes her personal mission.

She’s carrying the Expedia yellow suitcase, she’s slapped the Expedia logo on a surfboard – and managed to get her former boss, AirAsia’s CEO Tony Fernandes, posing with it for great media soundbites (below); and there’s a whole range of yellow Expedia merchandise – model aeroplanes, beach sandals, underwater cameras, baggage tags.

Personally, she’s bought yellow dresses, yellow shoes, yellow accessories. “You have to live and breathe the brand yourself,” she said.

“Think yellow, think Expedia. Think travel, think Expedia,” she said. “I want to breathe soul and attitude into the Expedia brand.”

The first “yellow”’ splash she made was in India when she visited AirAsia Expedia’s operations in Delhi. Media interest in anything to do with AirAsia is high given the impending launch of AirAsia India and Tan leveraged her low cost experience and relationship with Tony Fernandes to get coverage in India’s leading media.

Fernandes told the Economic Times, “The potential of AirAsia Expedia is enormous and with Kathleen driving the business, I’m confident that AirAsia Expedia will become a leader in the online travel agent industry and generate substantial revenue for us, as a JV partner. It’s not a loss, but a significant gain for AirAsia as our focus for the next five years is ancillary and adjacent businesses.”

Tan is counting on her experience in China building the AirAsia brand to help her grow Expedia in India. “While they are different markets, there are similarities. One, they are both big,” she laughed. “Two, there’s a huge growing middle class and three, travellers in India, like in China, are getting adventurous. Even though most still travel in groups, more are travelling independently.”

Tan knows she has her work cut out for her though. It’s a new world she’s stepped into – the OTA world. “I am learning about the Expedia business and I am looking at where I can add value – and that is in the area of marketing and branding, localization, putting Asian content to cater to the Asian market,” said Tan.

Her first month has been spent focusing on the team and getting the best out of them (team pictured). “I inherited a team of very smart people,” she said. “What I am doing is proving leadership, giving direction and sharing my vision.”

Insiders say the culture of the office has definitely changed and some staff have left but of their own volition, Tan said. “The key people are all fired up and raring to go.”

She also knows that AirAsia Expedia’s playing a bit of a catch-up behind other OTAs that have scaled well across the region for example booking.com or Agoda.

But she said, “We don’t want to compete with other OTAs; we are here to create a new market for Expedia. We sell flights, cars, tours and hotels and they don’t. And we are Asianising.”

She’s picking the areas to focus on. In Hong Kong, it’s launched trilingual sites – simplified and romanised Chinese, as well as English. In Japan, where Expedia’s been for six years, low cost airlines are changing the market and she believes her experience with low cost will come in handy for building the brand in Japan.

“Low cost airlines are changing travel in Asia – look at Indonesia and China. This is a new frontier and it’s a frontier I understand.”

There are some who are sceptical as to whether she will succeed in this age of hyper competition and increased costs of customer acquisition, especially when she has to build two brands under the joint venture – Expedia and AirAsia Go.

“They are two different brands, two different platforms. Sceptics can say whatever they want. When I joined AirAsia, they said I’d last three months. They said it’d be even tougher because I am Singaporean and a Chinese woman. But I survived and triumphed.

“It comes down to myself. Being mediocre scares me. I enjoy driving change.”

Tan has also spent 30 days away from the office shooting for the new series of Apprentice Asia in which she plays observer alongside Tony Fernandes.

Asked what the experience was like, she said, “You learn about the psyche of humans – what you are capable of when you have to fight for survival. And in the end who wins depends on how badly you want it and how hungry and determined you are.”

She could almost be talking about herself.